USING SELF-DECODE GENETIC REPORTS TO ASSESS RISKS TO YOUR LONGEVITY
In the previous page, we introduced you to two options for assessing personalised longevity risks using the information in your genome.
If you’ve arrived at this page, we’re going to assume you’ve elected to proceed with Self-Decode - great choice!
Once you’ve signed up, you’re ready to proceed with your longevity risk assessment.
Using Self-Decode, we’ll walk you through how to:
determine your risk of developing the four most common and deadly age-related diseases
most effectively choose additional reports to complete your risk profile
what do to, after you access the required information
Before you proceed: Genetic counsellors available online
But first - it’s important to know that many people who purchase a genome sequencing kit and subsequent analytics discover that they feel some anxiety or concern over their esults.
That’s quite normal, and if that’s your experience, we want to point out that there’s a medical professional for helping you through this!
You can speak with a genetic counsellor, on demand, remotely, over chat for up to 60 days using this awesome resource.
If you have any concerns or questions about your genetic reports, medical professionals known as ‘genetic counsellors’ are available to support you and answer your questions. You can even do this online, on-demand!
Using Self Decode for Longevity Risk Assessment
Longevity & Lifestyle Report
The Self-Decode ‘Longevity & Lifestyle’ report is an excellent starting place for your longevity risk assessment.
While it is by no means comprehensive, it will provide you with the key insights you’ll require to access further Self-Decode reports to expand your self-knowledge in a targeted way.
It covers five key areas which are highly influential on your personalised longevity risk profile, these are:
Oxidative Stress (increased levels of DNA damage with age)
Inflammation (specifically chronic inflammation)
Cardiovascular Health (heart attack, stroke)
Cellular Growth (do damaged cells become cancerous?)
DNA Repair (how well do you repair damage from the above?
This ‘panel’ of key genetic mutations will provide insight into your personal longevity risk for two of the four most common age related disease types - 1) cardiovascular disease and 2) cancer.
Hold onto your results, we’ll be coming back to what to do with them.
This leaves 3) neurodegenerative and 4) metabolic disease unaddressed (the other two of the most common age related diseases), so let’s make sure you cover off those areas as well.
Neurodegenerative Disease - APOE Report
The ApoE Report looks specifically at the ApoE SNP, which has three possible variations - ε2, ε3, and ε4.
You receive one copy of each from your parents, meaning you could be one of several combinations ε2ε2, ε3ε4, ε2,ε4 (etc.)
It is scientifically well-established that the ApoE combination you posses significantly drives your risk of developing neurodegenerative disease as you age.
This includes Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive impairment, and also is a deciding factor in cardiovascular disease risk.
Important statistic - as many as 60% of people who develop Alzheimer’s are ApoE-ε4 carriers.
This report will help you understand your personalised longevity risk and show you which combination of ApoE genes you carry.
We’ll also refer you to some excellent resources for managing this risk in upcoming content.
Metabolic Disease - Blood Sugar Report
Insulin resistance risk is specifically analysed in the Self-Decode Blood Sugar wellness report.
Now we’re left with assessing your risk for metabolic disease.
Thankfully there is a Self-Decode Blood Sugar Report we can leverage.
This report analyses 76 SNPs which drive known changes in your blood sugar levels as well as your metabolism.
Of particular interest here, is your personal risk of developing insulin resistance.
Insulin is a very important hormone secreted by the pancreas, which is a signalling gent to many processes across the body.
Perhaps the most notable is the signal to your cells to ‘open up’ and take up the available sugar in your blood.
Insulin resistance means that your cells are not listening to this signal very well, and that chronically elevates your blood sugar levels.
Long-term increases in blood sugar lead to a wide array of problems, including increased risk of developing the other major age-related diseases (e.g. insulin resistance increases your risk of cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative disease, yikes!).
The Blood Sugar Report report will help you understand your personalised longevity risk based on which SNPs you carry.
SELECTING ADDITIONAL REPORTS
With the 4x most common age-related diseases covered by the above 3x reports, you’ll have 2x additional reports available to you under your Self-Decode subscription.
We suggest you use these additional reports to further flesh out your longevity risk profile.
Which reports you elect to use, should depend on information you’ve identified up to this point.
Here’s a few examples:
Example #1: Cardiovascular Disease Risk
Cardiovascular Disease Risk: The above are the key areas covered in the Longevity & Lifespan report from Self-decode. This example user should probably also access the Cardiovascular wellness report, given their above average risk.
Suppose that your Longevity & Lifespan report comes back looking like this example (at right, or above).
This particular user has been flagged as having above average Cardiovascular Disease risk.
While the Longevity & Lifespan report provided them some preliminary information, they’d be wise to access the Cardiovascular wellness report to dive deeper.
The Cardiovascular wellness report gets much more specific about what types of disease the user is at greatest risk of developing, including:
Atrial fibrillation
Heart failure
Vascular Complications
Coronary heart disease
Stroke
Hypertension
This level of detail will make the way one manages longevity risk, which is the focus of upcoming content, more targeted.
Example #2: Elevated Cancer Risk
DNA Repair & Cancer Risk: This example user is displaying impaired DNA repair mechanisms in their genome. The would benefit from accessing the TP53 wellness report, given their above average risk. Learn more about TP53 on the Self-Decode genetics blog here.
A user may perhaps discover through their Longevity & Lifespan wellness report that they have an above-average or significant risk of developing certain cancers due to poor DNA repair genes (example results at right, or above).
One particularly influential group of SNPs are located in the TP53 gene.
TP53 is a well-established ‘oncogene’, which is a gene that can make an individual more prone to the mutations that cause many types of cancer.
TP53 ‘encodes’ a particular protein - p53 - which protects the DNA from damage and stops mutated cells from becoming malignant.
However, TP53 is often mutated in malignant tumours, and thus, certain SNPs in this gene are associated with elevated cancer risk - you can read about the details on the Self-Decode genetics blog.
These SNPs are so influential, that Self-Decode has dedicated an entire report to them, and the 21 different cancers which are known to be associated with these SNPs.
If your Longevity & Lifespan report flags above average or significant impairment to DNA repair mechanism, it may be wise to access this report.
Next Up: Prioritising Longevity Risk Management
Were you interested in this page? Would you like to see the journey continue? Contact us and let us know, we’ll make it happen